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A PERSONAL CONSTRUCT PSYCHOLOGY APPROACH TO THE DEVELOPMENTAL STUDY OF INTERPERSONAL MEANINGFULNESS
Abstract
The present study used a Personal Construct Psychology approach to investigate the extent and nature of the interpersonal meaningfulness of parents, peers and acquaintances at three developmental levels: preadolescence, adolescence and young adulthood. The primary focus was on the adolescent period. The concepts of self change, validation and interpersonal threat, particularly the regressive movement interpretation of threat, were discussed in the context of adolescent development. The expectancy hypothesis of the threat interpretation was applied to parents, while the exemplification hypothesis was related to acquaintances. Ninety subjects were equally divided among three age groups: Preadolescents (ages 9-11), adolescents (ages 14-16) and young adults (ages 21-23). An adaptation of Kelly's Role Construct Repertory Test (REP Test) was utilized. Personal constructs and contrasts were elicited. Participants rated specified role relationships on 13 point scales along the construct dimensions. Meaningfulness was measured as the extremity of ratings. It was found that adolescents attributed significantly less overall and positive meaningfulness to parents than did the other age groups, considered to reflect their disengagement from the parental influence. Concurrently, there was an increase in meaningfulness on the negative dimension, supporting the prediction of greater parental meaningfulness due to the threat associated with the parent-adolescent relationship. Males attributed greater meaningfulness to mothers than did females. There were no significant age differences in the meaningfulness of peers, attributed to the importance of close peer relationships across developmental levels. Females construed friends as more meaningful and with greater positive regard as they matured, and in comparison to males. The exemplification hypothesis of the threat interpretation received strong empirical support from the finding that adolescents rated younger acquaintances more negatively than did the other groups. The expectancy hypothesis received support in regard to mother, but not father. Mothers were rated more negatively by adolescents and young adults than by preadolescents.
Subject Area
Developmental psychology
Recommended Citation
FREUND, CAROL MARGUERITE, "A PERSONAL CONSTRUCT PSYCHOLOGY APPROACH TO THE DEVELOPMENTAL STUDY OF INTERPERSONAL MEANINGFULNESS" (1985). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI8526591.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI8526591